


Setting Fire to Our Homes

by Miniatures, nahemaraxe (zephyrina)



Series: Archunters Verse [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Apocalypse, Eventual Sabriel, Hunter Gabriel, Hunter Lucifer, Hunter Michael, M/M, Supernatural Reverseverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-23
Updated: 2014-12-23
Packaged: 2018-03-03 01:14:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2832821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miniatures/pseuds/Miniatures, https://archiveofourown.org/users/zephyrina/pseuds/nahemaraxe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Running away is not the hardest part.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Setting Fire to Our Homes

When Gabriel fishes some change out of his pocket, ten hours and two hundred miles later, the sun is about to set.

He hadn’t really been paying attention to the scenery so far, too busy in keeping an eye out for patrols or Luce’s Firebird; now that he’s blending in with the bus terminal crowd though, he can spare a moment to sightsee. The mountains-prairie-road combo laid out in front of him looks like it belongs to a postcard.

Within a few minutes, the light would be perfect.

Gabriel weighs the coins in his palm, considering his options. The eighty bucks he picked from Michael’s wallet are hidden in his duffel, untouched. These three dollars and however much pennies are his lunch money leftover. He could either invest them into new film for his camera or head to the diner and stuff his face with a cheeseburger and fries.

Or, he could use them to call home. 

Part of him doesn’t want to. Leaving means starting anew. No more monsters, no more nights spent patching each other up after a rough hunt, no more fights he has to step in between; even if settling down is a luxury he still can’t afford, it feels like he’s just dropped a huge weight off his shoulders. It’s exhilarating.

On the other hand, Mike and Luce are the only family he’s got left. They should know he’s alive and not dead in some ditch.

Gabriel casts a look outside. The bus won’t leave for another hour yet, and the ticket he pickpocketed from the guy in a suit is tucked away with the money. The perfect light is already there. By the time he’s run to pick up film, it’ll be gone. Try as he might, there’s no excuse good enough to put off that call.

“Fuck it,” he mutters, then he shoves the coins back into his pocket and heads to the payphone booths.

+

The phone rings once before someone picks it up.

It’s Luce, of course. His brother only says, “Yes?” but what’s behind it ( _worryragefearfearfear_ ) slams into Gabriel like a punch. He sways on his feet and presses the handset further against his ear; at the other end of the line, Luce is repeating, “Yes?” once more, and Gabriel’s tempted to hang up. He wants to. He’d do it if his arm didn’t weigh a ton.

“Gabe? Is that you?” A pause, then, “Can you talk?” 

“Yeah,” Gabriel says. “Yeah, of course. I’m all right.”

The breath Luce releases at that is loud enough to filter through the speaker, and with his mind’s eye, Gabriel can see him clear as day. From the slump in Luce’s shoulders to the hand pushing up his glasses to rub at the bridge of his nose, the image is way too familiar. He shouldn’t have called.

“Okay,” Luce is saying, “Okay. Where are you? Mike’s still out, but I’m coming—”

“No.”

“…No?”

“Yeah, no.” His brother can’t see him, but Gabriel shakes his head anyway. “I’m fine, Luce. I’m okay, I don’t need anything. Nothing—” he catches himself right away and chuckles. It comes off as a sob, almost. “Nobody kidnapped me. I left.”

“You what?”

Luce sounds incredulous. It’s the same tone of voice he has when Michael starts talking about hunts that don’t appear in any newspaper; as far as Gabriel can remember, Luce never used that with him. This is a first. “You just up and left? Jesus, Gabe, why?”

“You have to ask? Really?”

Silence falls now because no, Luce doesn’t have to and they both know it. It lasts for a few moments, then Gabriel breaks it.

“I just called to tell you I’m fine. Nothing more.”

“Sure thing,” Luce says. He laughs that little, self-deprecating laugh of his before continuing, “You’ve been planning this for a while, haven’t you? That’s why all your stuff is still here.”

“Yeah.”

No point in denying it. Gabriel has gone without lunch for days, using his lunch money to buy himself a new duffel, clothes, a shitty camera. The only thing he’s brought along is his gun, and its absence wouldn’t have raised any suspicion with his brothers. Michael’s hard and fast rule about weapons makes no exception; Gabriel has been carrying his gun to school for the past six years, hidden under textbooks.

“Yeah,” he repeats. “Fooled you.”

That’s an old joke between them; unsurprisingly enough, it falls flat.

“Gabriel, please.”

“Don’t, Luce. Just don’t.” Gabriel narrows his eyes and looks up. The phone booth has glass windows, and if he turns his head toward it, he can see his reflection. He looks tired - he is, after hours spent driving a stolen car and a five mile walk to the bus terminal - but other than that, he’s all right. He bites the inside of his cheek before speaking up again. “Do you know what's like to watch you two fight all the damn day long? What it does to me? Enough’s enough.”

“Listen to me,” Luce says. “I can’t promise it’ll be better, but give me and Mi— _me_ , give me a chance. I can try to fix it. I will try, I swear, just don’t do this. Not to me.”

“Michael hears voices!” Gabriel snaps, only to wince when a couple of bystanders turn around and cast him weird looks.

“Michael hears voices,” he repeats in a lower tone. “We’re always on the road, and I have to sit in the backseat and listen at you tearing into each other. Last week that wendigo almost got him, but you both kept bitching about whose fault it was all the way to the hospital.”

“I was _worried_.”

 “So was I.”

There’s rustling at the other end of the line. Luce must have plopped himself on the bed or something. “Gabriel—”

“No. Shut up and listen: I’m gone and I’ll stay gone. I’ll call when I get the chance, but you don’t look for me, you hear? You do that and I swear to God, you’ll never see my face again.”

Saying those words is maybe the hardest thing Gabriel’s ever done in his life. Harder than watching Raph getting torn to pieces before his eyes; harder than pulling the trigger on some monster for the first time, when he was nine and young and scared; harder than hotwiring a car and leaving his brothers behind. Still, he had to.

“You hear?”

Luce’s answer comes after a beat. “Yes. Yes, I do.”

“Okay.”

Gabriel’s about to hang up when Luce speaks again.

“Take care, little bro. Please.”

“You too,” Gabriel says.

His eyes sting something fierce as he gets out of the phone booth, but he ignores them and heads toward the front door of the terminal. He has a bus to catch. 

**Author's Note:**

> This is a co-authored verse, meaning that each fic has a single author. The rating and the warnings cover the whole verse and will be altered accordingly. This fic is by Nahemaraxe.
> 
> AU, Michael, Lucifer, and Gabriel are hunters. Here Gabriel is 15, Lucifer is 22, and Michael is 25. A big thank you to greymichaela and wordssometimesfail for the beta job and general awesomeness. I owe you <3
> 
> Title taken from 'Your Bones' by Of Monsters and Men  
> Fill for my 'theft' prompt (hurt_comfort bingo)


End file.
